What we do
The Foundation has a broad vision of all the individual and
social factors that affect childhood development and of the actions
that can contribute to achieving its mission. This vision
translates into several different initiatives.
Three partnerships
One of the Foundation's approaches is to promote the
mobilization of a large number of civil society actors --
organizations, institutions, stakeholders and parents -- in order
to help them achieve specific objectives in critical areas that
have a determining influence on educational success.
To achieve that goal, in 2007, the Foundation and the
government of Quebec joined forces to set up long-term
partnerships to stimulate local and
regional mobilization:
- Avenir d'enfants for early childhood
development
- Québec en Forme for healthy lifestyle
habits
- Réunir Réussir for student
retention
These three initiatives are the result of reflection based on
experience acquired during the Foundation's first few years of
activity, during which time it supported many projects that enabled
it to validate its decision to concentrate its efforts on
mobilizing communities.
At present, most of the Foundation's
investments are made through these partnerships with the
Quebec government. Every year, a total of $50
million is allocated to the three partnerships.
Numerous contributions
During its initial years of activity, before it began to
establish partnerships with the government of Quebec, the
Foundation lent its support to many projects. Those projects, some
of which are ongoing, were related to issues such as
health, healthy lifestyle habits and early
childhood. They also offered support to parents,
stakeholders and communities, and helped further children's
development and promote student retention.
Awareness activities and tools
To raise awareness (not only of parents but also of community,
social, economic and public actors in Quebec society) of the
importance of taking action very early in children's
lives in order to contribute to their educational success,
the Foundation has launched various awareness activities and tools.
Naître et grandir - a magazine, website
and communication initiative - is one of its most significant
achievements in this area.
Our evaluative approach
As a philanthropic organization, the Foundation plays a
complementary role in actions initiated by various other actors at
different levels (government, civil society, organizations, etc.).
In this context, evaluation has proved to be an invaluable tool,
helping us to learn what works, what doesn't and why, to improve on
actions taken and to share knowledge. Our goal is to develop a form
of evaluation that can be adapted to the different
intervention contexts in communities and philanthropic
milieus so as to create a tool that is useful to them.